Karl Jenkins, according to several reckonings, is the most often performed active classical composer. He is admired and reviled in equal measure, and there is no sense in trying to reconcile those camps here. Instead one can look to the appealing factors in
Jenkins' earlier music and ask in what way they are present here.
Jenkins is a populist, tonal composer, but he has little in common with the likes of
John Rutter. His works are large, even monumental, combining a collection of Romantic British moves with influences from world music, and uniting it all with a common theme and set of musical devices. The key to
Jenkins' music has, in fact, been its unity: many composers write in his general style, but few would have hit on the idea of referring back to the medieval tune L'homme armé and giving it contemporary resonances as
Jenkins did in his 2000 work The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. The present work is connected in general then with The Armed Man, and for sheer scope it outdoes anything
Jenkins has produced thus far. In 17 movements, it includes parts for three separate choirs, including a 1,000-voice monster accurately dubbed The Really Big Chorus. (If you're thinking of performing it locally, don't worry; as
Jenkins often does, he allows performances by smaller groups.) The texts are drawn from the utterances of the various peacemakers pictured on the cover (including Mother Teresa,
Nelson Mandela, and the Dalai Lama of Tibet), as well as poets and scriptural passages, and they're loosely linked musically to the forces involved: the
City of Birmingham Symphony Youth Chorus sings the texts of innocence, and there are light world (or Celtic) music accents corresponding to the international figures. What the work lacks is a true narrative. Whatever
Jenkins may or may not have been in the past, it has been difficult to charge him with diffuseness, but for all the sound and fury involved here, that's what happens this time around. ~ James Manheim